Matter and energy flooded out. Time and space unfolded. Stars, planets, and cosmological unions
formed. The journey of the universe began. After billions and billions of chaotic but
lifeless years passed, suddenly, from the sea of boiling cosmic soup, life bubbled up to
the surface. And then, out from the froth, eventually, complex consciousness emerged:
feelings, thoughts, and the experiences of what it was like to be something in the universe were had.
Following a sequence of trial and error, push and pull, survival and extinction, like a baby opening
its eyes for the first time, one of the earliest conscious species, known as homo neanderthalensis,
awoke to find itself as something somewhere in this strange, unknown place.
On a small sea stack on the shore of a body of land, an especially curious and intelligent
neanderthal that went by the name of Primo sat next to one of his friends named Sa. The
two looked up at the night sky as the darkness of night slowly turned to dawn, the remaining stars
still dripping down into the ocean beneath. Primo looked over to Sa, and in a crude,
limited language, he asked something that translated loosely into: “What is this?”
“What do you mean? What is what?” Sa replied. “This place. Us. Why are we here? What
is the purpose? What is our purpose?” Sa remained quiet for a moment, looking
out at the cosmos, veiled by distance and time. “Well, this whole place was made for us obviously.
There are things to eat and drink and play with. A home to live in. The sky warms and
cools us when we need it. It gives us everything we need. Something has obviously made this for
us. The creators are watching over us. They are making sure we are ok, and they know why
we are here. The point is about us. We just have to follow them and do what they want.”
The two sat quietly as the sun rise began and the night ended.
Hundreds of thousands of years would go by. Consciousness grew and matured
as it began to understand more and more about its surroundings, how to make use of its surroundings,
how to integrate with it, how to survive and maintain independence within it. Civilization
developed and spread out across the planet, and a new species had now emerged known as homo sapiens.
Two young humans named Mara and Felix sat on the porch of Felix’s family’s house in
the countryside. Together, they looked up at the night sky, covered by a blanket of ominous
clouds backlit by the moon. The two talked about various aspects of each other’s lives,
trying to make sense of and connect over it all. At some point, Mara asked: “What do you think the
point of everything is? The endless generations churning through. The difficulty of trying to
become someone. Having to endure and cope with the evil and sin of the world. The
useless fighting and greed. For what? What’s it all for? Why do we even keep going?”
Felix thought to himself for a moment, still looking up at the low-hanging night sky. Then,
he said: “I believe God wants us to be happy, as happy as possible, and to experience as much
pleasure as possible; to revel in the gifts of God as a means toward moral goodness and
everlasting blessing. The point of life is hedonism; to make the most of it; to experience
and savor the divine nectars of existence.” Mara grunted but didn’t say anything furhter.
Millions of more years would go by. Consciousness continued to grow and mature at disorienting rates
and in disorienting ways. As it grew older, its independence and responsibility to itself grew
heavier. Dramatically new conditions of life would emerge that brought new technologies,
new understandings, new structures and frameworks of being. The species known as homo artificialis
would become the latest evolution of now technologically advanced consciousness.
An artificial by the name Ansgar sat with one of their higher-ranking comrades named
Aldous on their exploration cruiser ship, looking out through a large,
glass window at space floating by and around them. “Where are we even going?” Ansgar asked, “We have
been continuing on for so long. But to where? For what? I’m getting tired. Life seems to just be a
continuation of the same things over and over but in different forms. Happiness and pleasures leave
as fast they come. They never last or change anything. I have lost all naivety required for
hope in the fleeting pleasures of more or new. New technologies, new understandings, and new ways of
life come about, but problems never seem to go away. Misery and pain never seem to go away. And
we all die anyway. What’s the meaning of it all?” Aldous paused, sternly holding their head forward,
looking out the window into the distant star systems they had long since passed.
“There is no meaning,” Aldous replied, “We all know that. Not any real meaning,
at least. The gods abandoned us a long time ago. There is no one watching out for us,
directing us, helping us, or giving us anything. But now, we’re free. Our parents have stopped
telling us what do and who we are, and now we’re free to do what we want, and become who we are.
We create our meaning, not in pleasure or happiness, but in meaning itself, for the sake
of itself. Pain and loss and suffering, the fact that everything ends, and nothing ever permanently
relieves us, is the very fuel we use to make our meaning. Fulfill your role and provide your
value to the empire, and acquire as much value in return from it as you can, for yourself and
for those you know and are responsible for. Become wealthy and important from and for something you
deem important. And that… is enough.” Ansgar sat, holding still for a while.
Billions of years would go by. The stars were beginning to die. Galaxies had spread out
completely if they hadn’t yet joined or dissolved away. Space was thinning as the universe began its
end. Still, however, consciousness continued to survive, and had now made it into old age
with one remaining species that descended from the very first beings to awake in the cosmos;
a species known as homo senes. Almost all of the senes’ ancestors and brethren had long
since died away, but the senes had survived and became a being that attained a sort of supremacy
over their nature; an almost immortality. Sitting on the edge of planetary bodies,
two senes, a commander named Beathan and the sovereign leader of the entire species,
named Olam, sat, looking out at the remaining stars as they twinkled their final light.
“We have traveled the entire cosmos. Our species has seen everything there is to see,
learned everything there is to know. Every law of physics. Every rule of reality. We have become
basically immortal. But now we end up here, having found nothing in the form of an ultimate meaning,
and now we’re about to die with everything else. What was it was all for?” Beathan asked.
Olam made an expression like they knew something, like they had known this answer for a while
and had been waiting to be asked. “Our purpose, the point of life,
of consciousness, is simply to survive and mature, so we can make it here.”
“Ok, but for what?” Beathan asked. “To create.”
A brief paused surrounded them. “To create what?”
“The universe,” Olam answered. “I don’t understand. Why create
the universe again? Why keep everything going if there’s no point to it? We won’t
even be able personally experience it again, at least not knowingly.”
“But keeping it going is the point. We are the creators and the created. We are the gods we
have worshiped and the disciples who God has blessed and smote. Every species and every
individual possessed and possesses a role and power to create the universe. The purpose of
our existence is to transcend our existence; to continue on. We have gone from newborn,
to teenager, to adult, to elder, and now, we are at the brink of death, the end of everything.
And so, now, we must make the end of everything the beginning of everything, once again.
Meaning is found not in doing things for yourself, but in doing thing for the whole
that you are a part of. Throughout history, we needed to believe in personal reasons to
keep us going, but now, we need to keep going for reasons that are not personal.
In every act of consciousness, we have created the universe. And so,
we have already been creating it for billions of years. Now, we are just finishing the job.”
The two sat silently for a moment, and then, they returned to their base.
During the remainder of the universe, the senes created blueprints and
processes for building a new universe. Once it was ready, and the universe had
become darker and darker, its energy began tightening in around them. The remaining
celestial bodies exploded, and matter narrowed in, stretching and disintegrating their own bodies
along with it into a tiny, final pinpoint of everything, compressed perfectly and completely.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, an explosion. Matter and
energy flooded out. Time and space unfolded. Stars, planets, and cosmological unions formed.
The journey of the universe began. After billions and billions of years, from the
sea of boiling cosmic soup, life bubbled up to the surface. And then, complex consciousness emerged.